Using Blasterborn

Hey all, this is a n00b post, but please bear with me. I come from the land of marines where everything is basic and needs little thinking about!

Now I find I am building an army of Dark Eldar, an army with options, units with hardly any armour, and enough dark light weaponry to level a small moon.

There have been for a while now a lot of army lists out there that use Blasterborn and I am not here to disagree. What I am here to do is understand how people are using them.

Taking a standard 3 (or 4) Blasterborn in a Venom gives you two shooting ranges - 36" for the splinter cannons and 18" for the Blasters. The Venom can move 12" and still fire, but the squad inside can't at that speed (but they can at 6"?).

So how does this unit get used? Do you fast-skim 24" and get into cover and pop out with a 0-6" move and shoot at a tank in range or do you move 12" and then the Blasterborn jump out and shoot?

It'd be good to see how this unit is supposed to work and get any tips people have for making these guys work.

Thanks!

you ride them up untill you are 18" away, disembark and shoot.

Best to drop them in cover so they dont get shot away in the enemys first turn.

But if you flat out then 12" or ride 12" shoot with SC and then 12" and disembark depends on the game really

It depends. Blastborn are fairly sacrificial. The important thing to note with them is that even 4 S8 shots against many vehicles isn't going to get a destroyed, so don't throw them out there to blow up one Rhino in a rhino rush (or Chimera, etc). You can move and shoot for a 24" range. Save risking their lives for something important and don't plan on them being the sum total of your anti tank.

I find that Blasterborn work best with a blaster Archon babysitting them, mounted in a Venom for anti-infantry capability, supported by Ravagers and MSU Venom squads (usually Blaster Warriors for more darklights, but I could also see Wracks and/or Wyches working as well).

Of course, it also helps to have more than one of them (one of the best games I've ever played had me fielding two of these beauties)...

Like every DE unit blasterborn can be used in many ways almost all of which requires a modicum of finesse.

1) Most obvious sacrifice unit - move 12" disembark 2-3" (only a sliver of the base has to be in the 2" combined with size of base can give you almost 3") this gives you an effective blaster range of 33" and open up 4 blasters should at least put a dent in your chosen target. Note that this is a 'bomehead' tactic for anything less than a serious threat (I'm in the process of writing a piece about target priority I'll post more detail about it then).

2) Mid-Range anti-tank - In this role you use the venom as an anti-infantry platform whilst moving at 6" a turn to get anti-tank blaster fun on closing enemy vehicles.

3) Execution unit - In this role you use your blasterborn to go after a high priority infantry target (not a lot likes 4 s8 ap2 shots coming thier way) good against single model units (vindicare, mephiston, MC's etc) or high armour/wound units (termies, nob bikers tyranid warriors etc).

4) Distraction - nothing attracts an opponents attention like 4 darklight toting psychopaths in a speeding venom turboing toward thier back field. Careful positioning is the order of the day try to make it so that to shoot at them forces your opponent to move into an undesireable posistion where as to leave them means they are on him next turn. This makes your opponent dedicate lots of his shots at one unit allowing others to survive.

I'm sure there are more uses but those are the basics you are not limited to any one use and all tactics may be used in the course of a single game.

I'm not saying that blasterborn arre bad I just don't exactley like the idea of 150 point (roughly) 5 man squad going and almost sacrificing themselves, but I do like the idea of using them as a distraction unit, but I think that's kind of a point sink.

Incubi Death wrote:

I'm not saying that blasterborn arre bad I just don't exactley like the idea of 150 point (roughly) 5 man squad going and almost sacrificing themselves, but I do like the idea of using them as a distraction unit, but I think that's kind of a point sink.

The problem is some people plan them out as their primary AT (usually to skimp on taking gunboats in the HS and/or Reavers in FA). Then you end up throwing them up within 18" there trying to do what a 36" gun would do.

I like to see my Blastborn live for three to four turns. Lots of good targets (besides vehicles) in many armies:

Chaos: Terimnators, Oblits (yes, please! Instant Kill on Oblits make a Chaos player cry)
Tyranid: Warrior breeds, Zoanthropes
SMs: Bikes (especially attack bikes), Termies
Orks: Nobz

Anything T4 with multiple wounds doesn't want to see 4 S8 shots, and many of them want to get close. I rarely jump them out on the first turn, and prefer to float the Venoms around strafing squads with poison shots waiting for a worthy target for the squad.

True, true. I really like the idea of killing at least 2 termis a turn. Also if you use them as your main AT option I think that you should really have a DL Ravagerto help because with 4 blasterborn in a Venom there are lots if things that could go wrong. Anyways.

See, this is why I like to run 3x Ravagers and 2x 4-man Blasterborn Venom squads led by Blaster Archons. That's 19 darklights right there.

Rather then a venom - why not a raider? Another DL plus a potentially longer range with the free rotate...

Massaen wrote:

Rather then a venom - why not a raider? Another DL plus a potentially longer range with the free rotate...

That's the great thing about our Codex. You can pack AT or AI in any FoC slot. Venoms are sort of an auto take for a lot of people, and I think they are a terrific choice for it since they are the smallest run common unit, but if you have enough AI in the rest of the list, why not take a Raider to boost your AT?

Wow I think o may make some too! Anyone have a favorite way to make them? And does anybody know the best way to get cheap blasters?

Incubi Death wrote:

Wow I think o may make some too! Anyone have a favorite way to make them? And does anybody know the best way to get cheap blasters?

Blasters as bitz sell for (usually) $4-$7. Blast Pistols and Reaver Blasters go for half that (sometime less). I bought those, clipped the barrel, and glued it to Splinter Rifle stocks. Looks okay, but I intentionally painted all the rifle and blaster stocks in my army black (with the Splinter rifle barrels silver and the Blaster barrels gold) so they would pop and no one could stress the conversion.

I saw a great conversion where someone took the splinter rifle and cut it off where it started to taper down into the barrell. They took a blast pistol and cut off its barrell then glued that to the splinter rifle. They look good, much better than the shredder conversion IMO.

I'm usually a little surprised by the number of people who advocate having Trueblasters get out of their vehicles. It might be the old DE fuddy-duddy in me, but I equate Warriors (and that's what Trueborn are) outside of a vehicle as dead Warriors. Yeah, I *maybe* do it with one squad on Turn 1 for a vital shot, or maybe on Turn 2-4 if my skimmer is shaken and I need those shots.

But, seriously, barring very specific enemy lists and setups - there's not too many times you need to disembark to manage a shot with Trueblasters. I think anyone who thinks it's a requirement really just needs a few more Raiders in their list, and a few less Venoms.